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MasterCard reported that the gross dollar volume for its debit programs in the U.S. rose nearly 45% in the fourth quarter to $85 billion. However, U.S. credit and charge card GDV inched up by only 3% to $159 billion. Globally, MasterCard’s credit and charge card programs are up about 8% in 4Q/06. Purchase dollar volume for U.S. credit/charge cards rose 6% while debit programs soared by 53%. At the end of 2006, MasterCard had 211 million accounts and 260 million cards for its U.S. credit and charge card products. At the end of 2005, MasterCard has 208 million accounts and 254 million cards for its U.S. credit and charge card products. As of December 31st, MasterCard had 100 million accounts and 106 million cards for its U.S. debit programs, compared to 72 million accounts and 77 million cards at the end of 2005.

VISA’s decision to become a global public company is taking shape as it names a transition leader. Industry veteran Joseph Saunders will become Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Visa Inc. later this year after Visa Canada, Visa USA and Visa International complete their mergers. Initially, Saunders will serve as a designated appointee of Visa Inc. wherein he will help recruit a CEO and board members for the new Visa Inc. Saunders will report directly to Visa Inc.’s “Transition Governance Committee,” which has authority over the restructuring process and is comprised of representatives from all of the Visa regions, Inovant and Visa International. As a result of his appointment to this position, Saunders relinquished his role as member of the boards of directors for Visa USA and Visa International. Saunders has served as the top card executive at Household, Fleet, Providian, and Washington Mutual. In October, VISA confirmed its IPO plans and said it would take between 12 to 18 months to complete. Under the new structure the public will own a majority of the new company and the majority of the directors will be independent. Visa Europe will remain a membership association owned and governed by its 4,500 European banks. It will become a licensee of VISA Inc. (CF Library 10/11/06)

Chase and the American Cancer Society have teamed up to offer Chase cardmembers the opportunity to support the American Cancer Society by redeeming rewards points to make a contribution over the phone or online Chase Freedom customers now have the option to redeem 2,500 points for a $25 contribution to the American Cancer Society. Chase also encourages cardmembers to contribute through existing American Cancer Society channels. Chase will contribute a minimum of $75,000 to the Society in connection with the Chase Freedom promotion.

NJ-based debt buyer Asta Funding reported that net income for 4Q/06 rose 22% to $11.3 million. Revenues for the period were $25.6 million, a 27% increase over the prior year’s quarter. Asta purchased $1.3 billion of face value of charged-off consumer receivables during the quarter for a cost of $62.3 million. Net cash collections from consumer receivables acquired for liquidation were $58.9 million for the quarter, up 27.5% year-on-year. The Company also announced today it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase a portfolio of approximately $6.9 billion in face value for a purchase price of $300 million. The portfolio is made up of predominantly credit card accounts and includes accounts in collection litigation and accounts as to which the sellers have been awarded judgments and other traditional charge-offs. The seller is Great Seneca Financial and related entities. For complete details on Asta Funding’s latest results visit CardData ([www.carddata.com][1]).

Data Delivery Services and Payment Alliance International have entered into a multi-year agreement for DDS to provide web-reporting and technology services to PAI’s management, partners and merchants. The new agreement would provide PAI merchants with a single access point to their processing statements, transaction history, and other pertinent acquiring information via the DDS secure web-reporting platform. Payment Alliance International provides credit card and check processing services. Data Delivery Services provides third party technology to the payments industry.

TX-based Payment Data Systems has entered into an agreement with LPGA star Natalie Gulbis to develop, market, and distribute the Natalie Gulbis Gift MasterCard. Pursuant to a license by Mastercard International, the Gift Mastercard will be issued by MetaBank. Gulbis is in the top five of Advertising Age’s most marketable young athletes, pens a popular online diary on her personal website, has started the second season of her Golf Channel reality television show, recently released her second swimsuit calendar, and is a featured character in a Tiger Woods video game. Payment Data Systems is an integrated payment solutions provider to merchants and billers.

Tamalpais Bank customers now have access to the more than 23,000 surcharge-free ATMs in the MoneyPass nationwide network. Customers can locate the most convenient branch while they are traveling by accessing www.moneypass.com and entering the city name or zip code of their location. The current Tamalpais Bank ATMs will continue to be accessible to customers. Epic Bancorp is the holding company of Tamalpais Bank and Epic Wealth Management with $504 million in assets and $370 million in deposits as of December 31, 2006.

Mobile network operator SFR has been scheduled to join a contactless payment pilot launched by Credit Mutuel-CIC. The pilot is being tested at approximately 60 merchants in the town of Strasbourg, France and allows participants to make purchases by tapping their cell phones against a certain type of reader. For the pilot application, 500 compatible phones have been manufactured . The application complies with MasterCard Worldwide’s PayPass specifications and stores the subscriber identity module card in the cell phone.

WA-based Coinstar posted net income of $5.0 million for 4Q/06 compared to $5.5 million one-year ago. Revenues for the period were $138.0 million, compared to $125.6 million for the prior year’s quarter. Management estimates that revenue for the quarter ending March 31st will range from $125 million to $135 million. During the quarter, Coinstar launched “Direct Coin Deposit,” a new service that enables bank and credit union customers to electronically transfer coins into personal accounts. Last year, the Company signed a deal to purchase London-based Travelex Money Transfer for approximately $27 million in cash. Coinstar, known for its green consumer coin counting machines in supermarkets, has its products and services in more than 60,000 retail locations. For complete details on Coinstar’s latest results, visit CardData ([www.carddata.com][1]). (CF Library 5/5/06; 10/26/06)

In Europe, cash transactions are steadily being replaced with card purchases. MasterCard reported gross dollar volume (GDV) of $520 billion for Europe, a year-on-year increase of 13.9 per cent, along with purchase volume growth of 14.1 per cent to $384 billion for the year ending 2006. MasterCard’s customer banks had issued 152 million MasterCard-branded cards in Europe, a growth of 17.4 per cent, with 7.7 million locations accepting the cards. Among MasterCard’s family of brands, Maestro and Cirrus cards rose to 287 million in Europe, an increase of 5.7 per cent in 2005, with acceptance levels at 6.9 million European locations. With headquarters in Waterloo, Belgium, MasterCard Europe works with 51 European countries. MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes approximately 14 billion transactions each year and serves consumers and businesses in 210 countries and territories.

Newtek Business Services announced that T. Alan Schmidt has announced that he will be leaving Newtek Business Services on February 15, 2007. Schmidt was a founder and served as President and COO of Newtek Merchant Solutions, the company’s electronic payment processing division to join NCMIC, Newtek’s processing bank and strategic partner in order to develop and operate NCMIC’s merchant processing business. Newtek Business Services, Inc. is a financial service provider to the small to medium-sized business market.

The GSM Association and MasterCard have launched a program to both complement existing local remittances channels and make transferring money internationally significantly more affordable. The program is aimed at international migrant workers & utilizes 19 mobile operators with networks in over 100 countries and represents over 600 million customers. The program will utilize a global hub that will link together national markets and local payment systems run by mobile operators & local banks. The GSMA believes the program could double the number of recipients of international remittances to more than 1.5 billion. The GSMA and MasterCard has a 25,000 member-bank network. International remittances, which total more than US$230 billion a year, are already a major source of income for many developing countries and a very important factor in their economic development.